Thanks, Mark. I've already made it clear to the other club members NOT to
expect a successful sat QSO.
I'm going to make sure that my audience knows that too. One hands-on
activity that I came up with (and I was already contemplating letting
someone else use the Arrow, maybe a repeat visitor who has already seen my
song and dance) - I have printed some copies of the grid-square map, and
I'm hoping the children especially mark their map during the passes as they
hear the grid-squares. I was astounded by how many grids I heard on just
ONE AO-27 pass on Wednesday!
There are very few hams in the area where we're doing FD, which is one
reason why we chose that location, to stir up interest.
Philip N4HF
On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 6:50 AM, Mark L. Hammond <marklhammond at gmail.com>wrote:
> Hi Philip,
>> Happy to hear you are getting active again! Great.
>> One small precaution, based on personal experience during Field Day---be
> careful about creating expectations that can't be delivered...in other
> words, using the handheld system to listen to an FM bird is pretty easy,
> but on Field Day, it might be impossible to get a signal into the bird for
> a real contact.
>> When I've done demos on Field Day, I warn my observers that it's going to
> be quite busy, and while we certainly will hear the bird, it's unlikely
> with 5 watts that I'll make a contact *today*. But letting them hear the
> busy bird gets them interested, and has led to invitations to give a
> presentation/demo at a local club meeting---which CAN more easily lead to
> making some contacts (especially if you announce the event here on the BBS.
> People will look for you specifically, in order to make your event
> successful).
>> If you're going to have both the TS-2000x and the little radio, you could
> have somebody else waving it around to listen, while you operate the
> transmitter. It's fun to have audience participation!
>> Not sure I'll be on the air on Field Day, due to work---but best wishes
> for a great day.
>> Mark N8MH
>> At 11:03 PM 6/21/2012 -0400, Philip Jenkins wrote:
> >Thanks, Drew. I didn't realize AO-27's status, and I wasn't really looking
> >forward to getting up in the middle of the night anyway :-) (although
> SO-50
> >has an excellent pass around 330 am :-) )
> >
> >I did play around with AO-27 and SO-50 most of the day Wednesday, but
> yeah,
> >I haven't really been active on the sats since a 1993 AO-13 DXpedition to
> >VP2M.
> >
> >The reason I'm planning on using the HT and Arrow is to show them the
> >(nearly) minimum equipment that can be used to work a sat - that they
> don't
> >have to have a fancy radio (IC 910, IC-9100, TS-2000) and a big antenna
> >array to work the birds. (I do have switchable CP yagis on 2M and 440 at
> >home, with an az/el rotor, but transporting all that would be too much
> >logistically AND I thought it would be overkill and too intimidating for
> an
> >audience whom you're trying to attract into ham radio.) But yeah, I'd much
> >rather have full-duplex like I did on AO-13.
> >
> >Philip
> >
> >On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 10:36 PM, Andrew Glasbrenner <
> >glasbrenner at mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -
> >> >I'm leaning towards AO-27 for listen only, as I know the bird will be
> jam
> >> >packed with ops that weekend (although I do have a decent pass at 230
> am
> >> >local Sunday, and an even better one at 4 am) and actually trying to
> make
> >> a
> >> >contact on SO-50, although I'm sure it will be busy too.
> >>
> >> Let me save you some sleep. AO-27 is only on for the ascending passes in
> >> the afternoon, and only for 7 minutes starting at about 30 degrees
> >> latitude. This means the first several minutes of the afternoon pass
> will
> >> be silent from your QTH, and all of the overnight passes.
> >>
> >> > Definitely AO-7 for my linear choice, as I know the linear birds
> won't
> >> be
> >> >as busy as the FM ones. FO-29 is my next choice.
> >>
> >> FO-29 and VO-52 will work better on FD, as AO-7 tends to get overloaded
> >> easily.
> >>
> >> >
> >> >I'm planning on using the Arrow antenna with my VX5-R for the FM birds,
> >> and
> >> >I have an M-Squared 2M/440 (same boom, but offset 90 degrees) with an
> >> >"armstrong" az/el control for the linear ones with my TS-2000X.
> >>
> >> Why give up full duplex and the TS-2000 to use the VX5 on FM?
> Half-duplex
> >> is a poor choice for satellite on normal days, let alone Field Day. If
> it's
> >> because of the birdie, use the TS2000 as the transmitter and the VX5 for
> >> receive only.
> >>
> >> Good luck. If you aren't a regular satellite user, try some passes
> outside
> >> of Field Day to improve your chances of success.
> >>
> >> 73, Drew KO4MA
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >_______________________________________________
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